Galactica 1980 post
...It turns out that Galactica 1980 is not AS bad as reports had me believing.
Not that's it's *good*, and I don't encourage anyone to go and watch it or anything crazy like that. But all the reviews of it were *so* scathing, and bear in mind these are from people who think BSG 78 is really good tv, and even they found the 1980 sequel appalling, tedious, embarrassing and basically as much of an Existence Not To Be Acknowledged mistake as Highlander fans consider Highlander 2.
And sure, I can barely imagine how disappointing it must have been at the time, for fans who'd embarked on a massive letter-writing campaign to get more of their show made, because there were really good aspects to BSG 78, and there was the clear potential for it to get even better, and Galactica 80... really didn't.
(Cautionary tale: be careful about letter-writing campaigns. Sometimes you'll get what you asked for and it won't be what you wanted)
Exception: "The Return of Starbuck". That episode *is* really good, and much more in keeping with the better of the original episodes such as "The Living Legend" and "War of the Gods". The rest of the Galactica 80 episodes are more like "Fire In Space" and that one with the unicorns.
Ok, so yeah I get the bitterness from original-series fans. But I found I quite enjoyed it. Probably the best bit comes from being able to make comparisons to Stargate: Atlantis, as I said earlier.
I'll summarise, so that no-one else has to watch the series. I mean, unless you really *really* want to.
...so, unlike SGA, BSG features a human-looking group from a distant galaxy turning up and colonising Earth. It's fantastic! They decide not to communicate with the 80's era Earthlings, since they don't want to alarm them and destabilise the Cold War situation, and Earth's technology levels are far too primitive to help against the Cylons anyway.
Imagine their disappointment! They came all this way looking for a new home and some military help against their enemy (which they conveniently brought with them), and instead they find technologically primitive people and New Wave! Cross galaxies expecting salvation, and what you get is Adam and the Ants. Traumatic. (Actually I wonder if synthpop was partly due to the Galacticans' meddling during the decade).
Anyway, instead of talking to the Earth governments, they hover about and *try* not to lead the Cylons to Earth (not entirely successfully, but they get rid of the Cylon patrol before too much damage has been done, so THAT'S OK), and they accidentally let a renegade Council of Twelve member go into the past and try to accelerate Earth's technological development over history so it will be at a point to help them in the current time period (potentially disastrous: Xavier decides that Nazi Germany would be a good recipient of technology, but again, our heroes stop him changing the timeline before it's too late, so THAT'S OK).
And in the last episode (except for the Starbuck one), their agricultural ship is destroyed, so they decide to set up an agricultural colony on Earth, and to stash their spare children there too. (The earlier arrival of one group of children on Earth was an emergency situation, though that doesn't explain why they didn't ship them back up to the Fleet when they did end up being able to fly back and forth). They don't *steal* the land or anything, of course (but they still don't tell anyone who they are). They find a farmer in dire financial straits who's looking for a partner, and help out with buying seed, and creating rain (thanks Dr Zee!), and making the local Racist Farmers back down from their harassment.
(There's possibly some interesting aspects there, about being "alien"/original/invaders etc. I'm thinking of how the farmer says that the other farmers hate him because he's Mexican and they think he doesn't *belong* there as much as they do, but points out that his family was farming this area way before any of *them* arrived. And the Bigoted Farmers try to sic the cops on the Galacticans by calling them "illegal aliens". And of course the Galacticans think of themselves as the original humans, with the Earthlings being their lost "13th tribe" who departed the 12 Colonies for Earth way back (as little sense as that makes). So perhaps it's not surprising that the Galacticans are a little confused about colonialism issues and who belongs where. I'm not entirely sure myself what I think is going on - does the show's vague awareness of racism and colonialism make the whole thing better or worse?)
But again, the "humans scattered across the galaxy to various planets" aspect is exactly like Stargate. (Complete with allegedly "good" but in practice morally ambiguous incorporeal "more highly evolved" godlike energy beings). Though there's no slavery, Go'a'uld or otherwise, involved in the BSG diaspora. ...Although we never do learn *why* the 13th tribe nicked off and crossed *several galaxies* way back then. I mean, that's some serious travel, especially when there are lots and lots of habitable planets they would have passed on the way (just like the Galactica did... and blithely continued on their way, insisting they were the *only humans* left (except for maybe the inhabitants of mythical Earth), because for reasons that aren't explained the populations of these planets don't count). I'm just saying, I suspect the 13th tribe may have had some excellent reasons for wanting to get as far away from the rest of the Colonies as possible.
So, BSG pretty much has identical dodgy colonialism issues to Stargate, except that the older show has the non-Earthlings as the viewpoint characters. When I say that I found the series entertaining, it's true that I wound up laughing *at* it as often as laughing *with* it. But I find that's much more fun to do with a decades-old show than a contemporary one. Oh Stargate, how far tv has *not* progressed over twenty-something years...
Not that's it's *good*, and I don't encourage anyone to go and watch it or anything crazy like that. But all the reviews of it were *so* scathing, and bear in mind these are from people who think BSG 78 is really good tv, and even they found the 1980 sequel appalling, tedious, embarrassing and basically as much of an Existence Not To Be Acknowledged mistake as Highlander fans consider Highlander 2.
And sure, I can barely imagine how disappointing it must have been at the time, for fans who'd embarked on a massive letter-writing campaign to get more of their show made, because there were really good aspects to BSG 78, and there was the clear potential for it to get even better, and Galactica 80... really didn't.
(Cautionary tale: be careful about letter-writing campaigns. Sometimes you'll get what you asked for and it won't be what you wanted)
Exception: "The Return of Starbuck". That episode *is* really good, and much more in keeping with the better of the original episodes such as "The Living Legend" and "War of the Gods". The rest of the Galactica 80 episodes are more like "Fire In Space" and that one with the unicorns.
Ok, so yeah I get the bitterness from original-series fans. But I found I quite enjoyed it. Probably the best bit comes from being able to make comparisons to Stargate: Atlantis, as I said earlier.
I'll summarise, so that no-one else has to watch the series. I mean, unless you really *really* want to.
...so, unlike SGA, BSG features a human-looking group from a distant galaxy turning up and colonising Earth. It's fantastic! They decide not to communicate with the 80's era Earthlings, since they don't want to alarm them and destabilise the Cold War situation, and Earth's technology levels are far too primitive to help against the Cylons anyway.
Imagine their disappointment! They came all this way looking for a new home and some military help against their enemy (which they conveniently brought with them), and instead they find technologically primitive people and New Wave! Cross galaxies expecting salvation, and what you get is Adam and the Ants. Traumatic. (Actually I wonder if synthpop was partly due to the Galacticans' meddling during the decade).
Anyway, instead of talking to the Earth governments, they hover about and *try* not to lead the Cylons to Earth (not entirely successfully, but they get rid of the Cylon patrol before too much damage has been done, so THAT'S OK), and they accidentally let a renegade Council of Twelve member go into the past and try to accelerate Earth's technological development over history so it will be at a point to help them in the current time period (potentially disastrous: Xavier decides that Nazi Germany would be a good recipient of technology, but again, our heroes stop him changing the timeline before it's too late, so THAT'S OK).
And in the last episode (except for the Starbuck one), their agricultural ship is destroyed, so they decide to set up an agricultural colony on Earth, and to stash their spare children there too. (The earlier arrival of one group of children on Earth was an emergency situation, though that doesn't explain why they didn't ship them back up to the Fleet when they did end up being able to fly back and forth). They don't *steal* the land or anything, of course (but they still don't tell anyone who they are). They find a farmer in dire financial straits who's looking for a partner, and help out with buying seed, and creating rain (thanks Dr Zee!), and making the local Racist Farmers back down from their harassment.
(There's possibly some interesting aspects there, about being "alien"/original/invaders etc. I'm thinking of how the farmer says that the other farmers hate him because he's Mexican and they think he doesn't *belong* there as much as they do, but points out that his family was farming this area way before any of *them* arrived. And the Bigoted Farmers try to sic the cops on the Galacticans by calling them "illegal aliens". And of course the Galacticans think of themselves as the original humans, with the Earthlings being their lost "13th tribe" who departed the 12 Colonies for Earth way back (as little sense as that makes). So perhaps it's not surprising that the Galacticans are a little confused about colonialism issues and who belongs where. I'm not entirely sure myself what I think is going on - does the show's vague awareness of racism and colonialism make the whole thing better or worse?)
But again, the "humans scattered across the galaxy to various planets" aspect is exactly like Stargate. (Complete with allegedly "good" but in practice morally ambiguous incorporeal "more highly evolved" godlike energy beings). Though there's no slavery, Go'a'uld or otherwise, involved in the BSG diaspora. ...Although we never do learn *why* the 13th tribe nicked off and crossed *several galaxies* way back then. I mean, that's some serious travel, especially when there are lots and lots of habitable planets they would have passed on the way (just like the Galactica did... and blithely continued on their way, insisting they were the *only humans* left (except for maybe the inhabitants of mythical Earth), because for reasons that aren't explained the populations of these planets don't count). I'm just saying, I suspect the 13th tribe may have had some excellent reasons for wanting to get as far away from the rest of the Colonies as possible.
So, BSG pretty much has identical dodgy colonialism issues to Stargate, except that the older show has the non-Earthlings as the viewpoint characters. When I say that I found the series entertaining, it's true that I wound up laughing *at* it as often as laughing *with* it. But I find that's much more fun to do with a decades-old show than a contemporary one. Oh Stargate, how far tv has *not* progressed over twenty-something years...